As the tug Signet Thunder approached San Juan’s Old Army Terminal towing the barge San Juan JaxBridge, crew from an assist tug boarding the barge spotted something wrong: a stowaway. Instead of proceeding to the dock, the tug held its position and radioed the Coast Guard. When a Station San Juan response boat arrived, crews saw a man in the water surrounded by ten drifting bales. Those bales turned out to contain roughly 358 kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated wholesale value of about $5 million. A full search of the tug and barge turned up no other stowaways or contraband, suggesting this was a one man attempt to ride a Jones Act tow into the U.S. with a high value load. Officials praised the tug crew for freezing the situation in place and underscored that barge stowaways—sometimes migrants, sometimes smugglers—are becoming a recurring enforcement challenge in the busy San Juan corridor.